Review: Noteworthy

Noteworthy by Riley Redgate
Grade: B
Release date: May 2, 2017
An e-galley was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration.
Summary: It’s the start of Jordan Sun’s junior year at the Kensington-Blaine Boarding School for the Performing Arts. Unfortunately, she’s an Alto 2, which—in the musical theatre world—is sort of like being a vulture in the wild: She has a spot in the ecosystem, but nobody’s falling over themselves to express their appreciation. So it’s no surprise when she gets shut out of the fall musical for the third year straight.

Then the school gets a mass email: A spot has opened up in the Sharpshooters, Kensington’s elite a cappella octet. Worshiped ... revered ... all male. Desperate to prove herself, Jordan auditions in her most convincing drag, and it turns out that Jordan Sun, Tenor 1, is exactly what the Sharps are looking for.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Noteworthy is definitely a book for music lovers. Other than that, it's a book for the dreamers, go-getters, and social justice warriors. Jordan Sun is not about to sit idly by and let her dreams slip through her fingertips. I admired her determination and hardworking attitude. I wasn't surprised when she made it into the Sharpshooters. I was surprised by a couple of things: 1) the lack of supervision for the Sharpshooters (even music groups at my university have more supervision than the Sharps), and 2) how much I enjoyed a story filled with boys. I'm usually all about the female-driven books, but I didn't mind that Jordan was pretty much the only girl on most of the pages. And I really enjoyed the group of friends that developed for Jordan, but I especially loved the romance with Isaac. I liked all of the dynamics with him, and he was super swoony. I enjoyed being able to contrast him with Jordan's ex, and he was so much better for her, partly because Isaac and Jordan got to form a friendship first.
The ending felt a little off to me; I think it was mainly the parts post-competition. It just felt maybe a little too perfectly wrapped up, if that makes sense.
There's a lot of swearing. Sometimes I felt like there was an s-word or f-bomb dropped on every page, but I tried to look past that because the quality of the rest of the book is pretty good.

The Verdict: Great rep and an enjoyable read.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: Probably.